


More Than Enough

by easefuldays



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Discovery, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-04
Updated: 2014-04-04
Packaged: 2018-01-18 04:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1414660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easefuldays/pseuds/easefuldays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Harry goes to an elite private school and is set to follow the path that his parents set for him.He has never known anything besides his perfect life, but everything changes when he meets Louis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Than Enough

                                 

There’s no guidebook for life. No steady hand to guide you in the right direction, no pamphlet on “this is how you become a successful human being.” People learn to rely on themselves, to put their dreams before all else. Everything, from the people you meet to the things you do, is left to chance.

Harry’s life was a routine. Wake up. Go to school. Come home. Eat. Go to the library. Come home. Shower. Sleep. Repeat. Each day had been mapped out for him, his life plan set before he had even learned to walk. He was expected to have a certain elite group of friends, to graduate school with high marks, to go to an Ivy League school and settle down with a pretty woman and have three kids. He was expected to live in a large house with a big yard and a white picket fence, to have Sunday night dinners and house parties. He was to work at his fathers law firm, to become a hotshot lawyer and make $500 an hour. He was expected to be perfect.

And that crippling standard of perfection was a lot to live up to, especially for an eighteen-year-old boy.

Harry was mostly content with his life. Really, he was. School came easy to him: he got good marks and had a good relationship with his teachers. He had a perfect attendance record, and was in the top 5 of his class. He had a good relationship with his mum and sister, he and his father respected each other. He had a solid friend group. But sometimes he wondered if there was more to life than this, more than housekeepers and school uniforms. Sometimes Harry wondered what it was like to wake up and not have a plan, to laugh freely without looking over your shoulder.

It was a Monday when everything changed. Harry was eating lunch with Niall under a tree in the common-area when two boys smoking cigarettes walked by, leaving a haze of smelly smoke in their wake. Cigarette smoking wasn’t completely uncommon, but gorgeous boys decked out in leather and tattoos didn’t exactly attend elite, snotty private schools, so Harry and Niall were both surprised.

“Oi!” Niall shouted, getting their attention.

“Niall!” Harry whispered, gathering up his things and preparing to leave.

“Oh hush, don’t be a dick. They’re fresh meat, don’t you want to get your hands on them before Eleanor and Nick do?”

Harry sighed, and averted his gaze just as the two boys walked over.

Niall, being the epitome of a social butterfly, introduced himself and struck up a conversation almost immediately. Harry decided to focus on his homework due the next block, and didn’t realize when one of the boys sat down next to him until he started poking his cheek.

“You have dimples,” the boy said.

“Yeah I-“ Harry looked up and forgot how to form words. Sitting next to him was easily the most beautiful human being on the planet. He had bright cerulean blue eyes, soft and feathery caramel hair that was styled into an almost-quiff. He had thin lips and a dazzling smile and cheekbones that could sharpen diamonds and Harry was awestruck.

“Harry, this is Louis and Zayn.” Niall said, pointing to the boy next to Harry and to the god-like boy standing next to him. Harry nodded, still at a slight loss for words.

“Louis and Zayn just transferred from some public school a couple of towns away and today is their first day! How exciting!” Niall exclaimed, looking excitedly between Louis and Zayn.

“Very” Harry mumbled, sneaking a peek at Louis to find him smiling at him. Shit.

Since that day under the tree, Louis and Zayn and Niall and Harry became a foursome, hanging out at lunch and in between classes. Harry and Louis clicked almost immediately. It was rare to ever find one without the other. After a couple of weeks, a boy named Liam from one of Zayn’s classes joined the group and everything clicked into place. Liam, the son of a Harvard English professor, quickly became the “daddy” of the group, making sure that everyone was getting their work done and eating properly and not getting too sloshed on the weekend. They worked, the five of them. Louis and Niall were loud and brash, Harry and Zayn more soft-spoken and quirky, and Liam was the glue that held them all together.

Suddenly, Harry felt complete. It was almost as if a void he didn’t know existed was filled when those four idiots became a crucial part of his life. He felt safe and appreciated and important. He felt like more than a statistic, more than a pre-planned child. He felt like he could do anything, as long as he had those boys by his side.

And that made him think. Maybe he didn’t want to follow the pre-set path. Maybe he wanted to make his own path, to write his own story.

Nick and Eleanor, the most popular kids in the grade, invited the five of them to a party one night. They went all out: Zayn decked in leather, Niall in jeans, a tee shirt, and a snapback, Liam in a sweater and slacks, Louis in bright red pants, a white tee and braces, and Harry in his tightest jeans and a blazer. They looked fit, the five of them. They got to Nick’s and spread out: Niall and Zayn and Liam to the drinks, Louis and Harry by the door. Louis kept a steady hand on Harry’s lower back the entire night and Harry’s stomach was filled with butterflies and his hands were sweaty and he couldn’t stop smiling like an absolute idiot the entire night. Having Louis by his side all night felt right. They found the others eventually and danced the night away, Harry never straying far from Louis’ side.

It’s easy to be ignorant about something you don’t know.  You could be perfectly happy doing one thing when you’ve never done differently. And when you realize that there’s more than that one thing, making the transition can be hard. Becoming your own person and differing from what’s expected of you can often unintentionally hurt or confuse others. The journeys of self-discovery and self-love have never been easy, but crucial. Unfortunately.

Harry wasn’t so content after all. His daily routine soon became irritating and boring. School was boring. His sister was moving out; his dad was spending more and more time at work and out of the house. The only constant, purely good thing in his life was his friends, Louis in particular.

Ever since the party, his mind was on a constant loop of louislouislouislouislouisprettyperfectlovelysmarthandsomelovelylouilouis. After a bit of a sexuality crisis and a lot of tears, he decided that he wasn’t not into girls. He was just into Louis more.

He wanted Louis to be his Saturday night and Sunday morning, his partner in this life and the next and maybe the one after that. Everything seemed to make sense. Louis just made sense.

His family was the classic white Christian upper-class. His father was a respectable lawyer that made more money than Harry could even fathom. His mother, the kindhearted and giving woman she was, worked at their church. His older sister was off studying at some prestigious college far, far away from them. So when the time came for Harry to announce his newfound discovery, he was completely on his own.

They were having a nice Sunday night dinner when Harry blurted out, “I think I’m in love with Louis.” His eyes widened and he clapped his hands over his mouth as if he couldn’t believe he just said it. His mother dropped her fork, his father paused mid bite.

“Well what about Cara, she’s a nice girl!” His mother said, trying to lighten the suddenly awkward mood.

“I don’t not like Cara, mum. I just also like Louis.” Harry slowly said, scraping his fork against his plate.

After a minute or two of silence, his mum said “Well that’s okay too. We love you regardless.”

“Speak for yourself.” Harry’s dad spat, roughly pushed his chair back and left the room. The front door slammed roughly a moment later.

His mother stood up, kissed Harry on the head, whispered words of love and comfort in Harry’s ear until he stopped shaking.

He “came out” to his friends a couple of days later. They were all sitting under a tree the courtyard; Niall leaning against the trunk, Liam and Zayn sitting cross-legged playing cards, and Louis was lying in between Harrys legs picking at the grass.

“So, uh” Harry started, getting the attention of the rest of the boys, “I, uh, um, I’m not completely straight?” Harry felt Louis’ entire body tighten, whereas the rest of the boys just stared.

Niall laughed and smiled at him, “Called it

 

Nick and Eleanor invited them to another party a couple of weeks later. Harry wanted to dress to impress (Louis), so he wore his tightest jeans and a see-through white tee shirt and boots and he was set. Niall picked him up and off they went.

“So Louis, huh” Niall asked, looking at Harry out of the corner of his eye.

“What about him?”

“Don’t play dumb kid.”

“Okay,” Harry sighed, “Louis.”

“Was he the one that brought on the whole sexuality crisis?”

Harry nodded.

“Well he’s going to have a proper fit tonight, then!” Niall screamed, pushing his foot on the accelerator.

Niall was right, as he often is. The minute Harry walked and saw him, Louis dropped his drink and ran away. Maybe not the reaction Harry was expecting, but a reaction nonetheless.

Harry spent the night dancing away with a random boy, pushing his body close to his. He lived for the feeling of his hands running down his hips and wet lips on his neck. To quote the wonderful Hilary Duff, this really is what dreams are made of.

That dream was interrupted when someone roughly pulled his body away and screamed “MINE” over the loud music.

“LOUIS?”

“YOU CAN’T JUST DO THAT”

“DO WHAT?”

“DANCE WITH PEOPLE WHO AREN’T ME”

“WHY NOT?”

“BECAUSE YOU’RE MINE”

“Oh” Harry whispered.

Louis sighed and grabbed his hand, guiding him through the bunch of people and into the kitchen where the music wasn’t as loud.

“So,” Harry started, shuffling his feet.

“Sorry about that, I don’t know what came over me.” Louis said, a pink flush blooming over his cheeks.

“I’m fine with that, by the way.”

Louis tilted his head to the side.

“I’d like to be yours. Please.”

       Louis smiled.

School was starting to get boring. Harry felt like he wasn’t being challenged, that his teachers were giving him good grades because his parents were spending shedloads of money on the school. His Law and Society class was horribly boring; he couldn’t be bothered with law. He found himself doodling in his notebook, and then onto any and every surface he could get his hands on.

Zayn saw him drawing on Louis’ sneakers one day and brought up the idea of Art school.

“There’s a fantastic one downtown. The application and a portfolio are due in a couple of months, I could get you a packet if you’d like.”

       Harry nodded, chewing on his bottom lip. Art school was the exact opposite of what his parents wanted for him. Instead of becoming a prestigious lawyer, he would be a stingy artist. And the idea of living in a one room flat with a leaky faucet and maybe a small cat sounded more appealing than studying law for the next handful of years. He suddenly wanted to work in a studio, selling his art to every type of person: rich, poor, stupid, smart. Harry wanted to experience life as colorfully as possible, so of course being an artist could work.

He didn’t tell his parents that he decided to change his career path. Zayn got him the application packet and helped him put together his portfolio. They sent in theirs together and Harry felt nervously excited. If this happened, his whole life would change. Hopefully for the better.

His father eventually came home after a couple of weeks living at his office. He and Harry didn’t talk; they avoided each other at all costs.

One night while Harry was on the phone with Louis, his father stormed in holding a large white envelope.

“What the fuck is this!?!” He spat, throwing the envelope on the bed. It was from the art school and, judging by the size, it looked like Harry got in. Harry shoved his phone under the pillow, making sure that the call was still connected.

“Uh,”

“THIS IS NOT WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT” His father screamed.

“But what we talked about isn’t what I want.” Harry said.

“First, you tell me you’re a fucking fag. Then you tell me you want to drop all of your shit and go to ART SCHOOL!? Of all places!.”

       “I-“

“This is really what you want? To get AIDS and make no money?” his father scoffed, “Good fucking luck, kid. You’re going nowhere.” With that, he walked out.

Harry sat in silence for a few moments, not knowing whether to feel hurt or happy. After a while he started to hear someone screaming his name and, remembering he put his phone under his pillow, picked it up.

Louis was furious. He ranted about how no one should ever talk to his boy like that, how he wanted to kick his father right in the face, and after a while Harry tuned him out. It was nice to have someone care about him so deeply.

His mother was much more accepting about him going to art school. He sat her down and showed her the schools’ website and, after a bit, it seemed that she was genuinely excited for him. Everything was finally falling into place.

High School is meant to be a time of growth and self-discovery. Of course, kids tend to get sidetracked by the appeal of drugs and alcohol. But more often than not, by the time your time is finished, you have a pretty good idea of who you are and what you want to do.

Harry’s life was relatively the same. Wake up. Go to school. Come home. Eat. Go to the library. Come home. Shower. Sleep. Repeat. However, instead of following the path that his parents set for him, he made his own.

He and Zayn were off to art school: Zayn doing comic-book design and Harry doing visual arts. Niall was off to work for his father in the music industry, and Liam was moving in with his long-time girlfriend and taking over his uncles’ bookshop. Louis was secured a job at the local elementary school where he would be a drama teacher. He and Harry found a one-bedroom flat in the middle of London with a leaky faucet and a really nice bathtub.

So maybe he wasn’t going to live in a house with a white picket fence and marry a nice girl and have a handful of kids. But he was finally in a place where he felt comfortable with himself. Plus, he had Louis, and that was more than enough.

 

 

 

 


End file.
